LEGO has announced a plan to develop sustainable manufacturing materials that would allow the toy company to ditch plastic forever. The Denmark-based company is investing millions to create a Sustainable Materials Centre to employ over 100 people who will carry out the search for a better building block. The company aims to identify a sustainable plastic alternative by 2030.

Over the next 15 years, LEGO will invest around $150 million to find a “new, sustainable, raw material” to use for the production of LEGO bricks and some aspects of packaging. “This is a major step for the LEGO Group on our way towards achieving our 2030 ambition on sustainable materials,” said Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, CEO and President of the LEGO Group. He adds, “We have already taken important steps to reduce our carbon footprint and leave a positive impact on the planet by reducing the packaging size, by introducing FSC certified packaging and through our investment in an offshore wind farm. Now we are accelerating our focus on materials.”

LEGO bricks have been made from the same familiar, foot-piercing plastic since 1963. Each year, the company reportedly uses more than 6 billion tons of plastic to create its toys. Finding a more sustainable material to build those blocks will reduce the company’s footprint dramatically. The Sustainable Materials Centre will take a little time to form, and LEGO plans to launch research sometime in 2016. Sounds “awesome” to us.

It’s not that it doesn’t last. It’s made from massive amounts of oil, as most plastics are. Hence logo’s previous relationship to Shell. They knew the association was bad publicity and now they have gone a step further to finding a sustainable material to make it from. Good on them (even if it is publicity focused).